Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Anemone tuberosa

desert anemone, desert windflower, tuber anemone
Aerial shoots

10-30(-40) cm, from caudex-like tubers, tubers ascending to vertical.
Basal leaves

1-3(-5), 1-2-ternate;

petiole 5-7 cm;

terminal leaflet sessile, rarely petiolulate, irregularly oblanceolate, (1.5-)2-3(-3.5) × 1-2(-2.5) cm, base narrowly cuneate, margins incised to dissected on distal 2/3, apex broadly acute, surfaces nearly glabrous;

lateral leaflets 1-2x-parted and/or -lobed; ultimate lobes 4-8(-12) mm wide.
Inflorescences

2-3(-5)-flowered cymes or flowers solitary;

peduncle proximally nearly glabrous, distally villous;

involucral bracts primarily 3, (1-)2-tiered, simple, ±similar to basal leaves, pinnatifid, 1.5-5.5 cm (primary involucral bracts 2-5.5 cm, secondary involucral bracts 1.5-3.5 cm), bases distinct, broadly to narrowly cuneate to clasping, margins irregularly serrulate and pinnatifid on ca. distal 1/2, apex narrowly acute to acuminate, surfaces thinly pilose;

segments primarily 3, linear to pinnatifid;

lateral segments 1-2x-parted and/or -lobed; ultimate lobes 1.5-2.5 mm wide.
Flowers

sepals 8-10, pink to white, linear-oblong, 10-14(-20) × (2-)3-5(-6) mm, sparsely hairy;

stamens 50-60.
Achenes

body orbiculate, flat, 2.5-3.5 × 2-2.5 mm, not winged, densely villous;

beak straight, ca. 1.5 mm, minutely puberulous, not plumose.
Heads of achenes

fusiform;

pedicel (5-)7-15(-22) cm.
2n

=16.

Anemone tuberosa
Phenology Flowering spring (Apr–May).
Habitat Rocky slopes, streamsides
Elevation 800-2500 m (2600-8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; NV; TX; UT; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The tuberous anemones in North America (A. tuberosa, A. edwardsiana, A. okennonii, A. berlandieri, and A. caroliniana) are closely related to each other and to the South American species A. decapetala Arduino, A. triternata Vahl, A. cicutifolia I.M. Johnston, and A. sphenophylla Poeppig. Particularly useful characters in identifying North American plants are number of tiers of involucral bracts, presence or absence of heterophylly between basal leaves and involucral bracts, and presence or absence of rhizomes. The current treatment of this group primarily follows C. S. Keener and B. E. Dutton (1994), who included a discussion of the relationships among its members. For a cytotaxonomic discussion of most members of this group, see C. Joseph and M. Heimburger (1966).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae > Anemone
Sibling taxa
A. acutiloba, A. americana, A. berlandieri, A. canadensis, A. caroliniana, A. cylindrica, A. deltoidea, A. drummondii, A. edwardsiana, A. grayi, A. lancifolia, A. lyallii, A. multiceps, A. multifida, A. narcissiflora, A. occidentalis, A. okennonii, A. oregana, A. parviflora, A. patens, A. piperi, A. quinquefolia, A. richardsonii, A. virginiana
Name authority Rydberg: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 29: 151. (1902)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers